From these considerations I would think it reasonable to draw the conclusion that taken by itself, the Pentateuch is not comparable to any of the works discussed. As Whybray himself puts it (Whybray 1987, 241), it exists historically in a kind of limbo, and structurally also it is sui generis. If, however, the Pentateuch is taken together with Dtr, which follows, we at once detect the pattern of a national history traced back to the origins of humanity, a pattern which emerged in the Near East and